Your brain on marijuana: two views

Neuroscience writer Laura Sanders had little idea what she was walking into when she wrote a short news story about marijuana earlier this year. The finding was interesting if not Earth-shattering: A hormone blocks some of the intoxicating effects of marijuana in rats and mice (SN: 2/8/14, p. 12). The work, she wrote, “may lead to drugs that help people curb cannabis dependence.”

The scolding began as soon as the story went up on the Science News website. Marijuana, many online commenters said, is simply not addictive. One wrote: “Cannabis was proven to be nonaddictive quite a long time ago…. I am sad to see a respected publication like Science News, which I read and appreciate, spreading this misinformation.”

Yet, in her reporting, Sanders had heard something quite different. Most scientists

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